Continuous Phase Modulation of Phase Coded Transmit Waveforms using Multi-Tone Sinusoidal Frequency Modulation

Abstract: Phase Coded (PC) waveforms possess desirable Auto-Correlation Function (ACF) properties for use in radar and sonar systems. However, their spectra possess high spectral leakage due to the abrupt phase transitions between the chips in the waveform. This paper describes a method of Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) to reduce a PC waveform's spectral leakage using the Multi-Tone Sinusoidal Frequency Modulation (MTSFM) model. The MTSFM-CPM model represents the PC waveform's instantaneous phase as a finite Fourier series. This representation smooths the abrupt phase transitions between chips resulting in a spectrally compact waveform. This smoothing of the PC waveform's instantaneous phase introduces perturbations to the waveform's ACF mainlobe and sidelobe structure. Adjusting the MTSFM-CPM waveform's parameters refines its ACF mainlobe and sidelobe structure while also preserving its compact spectral shape.